Oz Report

Tin Cup, could advertising pay the way?

And let the readers off the hook? (LA, CA, USA)

Most internet news sources don't ask for subscribers to help out with the costs.  Of course, these are general interest sources that draw on a much larger audience for advertising than we can claim here at the Oz Report.  Ours is a specialized market of focused interest.  Our advertisers know that you are quite interested in their products (and you bet your life on them).

I feel that readers, advertisers and we all have an obligation to share in this enterprise, this vocation of spreading and creating the news of interest to the hang gliding community.  So I don't really want to let readers off the hook, so to speak.

The dollar is so bad now that Luciana Rovera at Metamorfosi would rather send them to me than exchange them for Euros.  She writes: "I'm going to send the subscription for two years.  As I have dollars here that I can't change - the change is so bad now - I'm going to send you 40 dollars in an envelope."

You can send $20 or more for a yearly subscription/donation.  To pay for your subscription with your credit card or PayPal account:

If you’d rather just send a check for $20 (US Dollars, only please) or more, please feel free to do so.  The mail gets forwarded to me wherever I’m at.

Payable to:

Davis Straub (Not to the Oz Report)
PMB 1889 PO Box 2430
Pensacola, FL 32513

These are our supporters (if you are not on the list and have donated to the Oz Report, email me and I'll make sure that you are recognized): http://ozreport.com/supporters.php.  Some of you who I've missed in the past did write to me and made sure I knew just how important the Oz Report was to them.  If I've missed you, please do tell me.

Discuss Tin Cup at the Oz Report forum   link»

Should gliders be sold at manufacturer's list prices?

Some manufacturer's do what they can to support instruction

Some hang gliding manufacturers sell only through dealers that provide hang gliding instruction.  Their gliders aren't available from any other sources.  Dealers/instructors supplement their usually meager income (as they can't charge enough for instruction to actually make a living at it) by selling equipment to their students.  By selling at the manufacturer's list price they have an opportunity to make enough money to sustain their operation.

Can this business model actually work?  Does it rely too much on "hidden" subsidies?  Does it run counter to human nature (or at least the American version of human nature that forgoes community good for individual benefit)?

Rob McKenzie is a successful hang gliding instructor in LA (www.flytandem.com) but as we saw in a previous Oz Report issue, he sells Wills Wing hang gliders at a substantial discount to anyone who will come to the Andy Jackson Flight Park and pick up one that he has in inventory.  That's another business model.

Then there is the Lookout Mountain business model that builds a strong hang gliding community that pays full retail for hang gliders.  Perhaps they are just isolated enough to be able to support that kind of operation, while there are at least two strong hang gliding schools in the Los Angeles area.

How should hang instruction be paid for?  Obviously getting someone into the sport provides income to the instructor, dealer, manufacturer, USHPA, flight park owners, clubs, etc.  So it is worth it to ease the cost of getting into the sport.  But instructors only recapture the true cost of instruction if they can continue to sell gliders to the students as they progress.

And if used gliders aren't sold through instructors but rather directly or through on-line sites like the Oz Report classifieds (or the USHPA classifieds) then how are instructors (who can check the gliders and only sell them to qualified buyers) going to prosper?

A recent US Supreme court ruling gives manufacturers the power to set and enforce their list prices at the dealership level if they so desire.

Discuss Glider prices at the Oz Report forum   link»

New Wills Wing Distribution in Europe

I mentioned this briefly three days ago (Raamsdonksveer, The Netherlands)

http://ozreport.com/12.060#8

Bart Doets <bart.doets> writes:

Distribution of WW in most of western Europe has been shifted to a new company, Seagull Aviation, http://www.seagull-aviation.com/.  Their website is still under construction.

Seagull Aviation is a coproduction of hang gliding school owner Diederik Meeusen and flying gear distributor Ton Draaijer.  Although with the current dollar/euro rate WW has every reason to be big in Europe, it seems hardly to exist.

The former German WW dealer (once co-developer of the WW RamAir) has only handled paragliding lately.  The German market is the largest on the European mainland and is recently being dominated by AIR and Moyes, both in a much higher price segment.

I had looked earlier for Moyes pricing in Europe here, but didn't find anything.  If you have pricing in Europe/Germany/France, please send it to me so that I can share it with other Oz Report readers.

Discuss WW in Europe at the Oz Report forum   link»

Bautek

No longer developing new gliders (Kenn, Germany)

http://www.bautek.com/

Bart Doets <<bart.doets>> writes:

Harald Zimmer of Bautek explained he will no longer develop new hang gliders as it is too time consuming for a shrinking market (and the tragic death of his brother and co-director Horst earlier this year may have something to do with it as well).

In the DHV TV video (http://ozreport.com/12.060#8) he announces he will be working with Wills Wing.  In fact, he will take care of the German market for www.Seagull-Aircraft.com.

Discuss Bautek at the Oz Report forum   link»

Landing on wheels

It's so cool to have big wheels to land on. (Dalby Airport, QLD, Australia)

During the Dalby Big Air I flew an Airborne Fun 190 with big pneumatic wheels (http://www.willswing.com/Accessories/wheels_main.asp - see the biggest Finsterwalder wheels on this page).  While this configuration had a tough time going up wind, it was great for landing.  Almost all the landing possibilities in the Dalby are are cultivated fields or pastures, it was not a problem finding a field that worked with wheels.

I really enjoyed flying on the base bar all the way to the ground without rocking up in the slightest (although when I got to the ground I was essentially pinned on the ground until I unzipped).  One has the most control of the glider if they are on the base bar and rocked down.  That's the way we fly them after all.

I would pull in on the base bar to gain a bit of extra speed, but I didn't gain much as I was flying a single surface glider.  The perception one gets when coming into land this way with wheels is just a lot different than foot landing.  I never worried about the landing itself after I got myself into the wind.  The landings were rock solid and I didn't push out until I was about a foot from the ground.  I sure wasn't concerned about flare timing as it was obvious when to flare.

It would be great if we could have large pneumatic wheels as a part of our regular equipment, so that we could as a matter of course land in this fashion.  Unfortunately, they extract too high a performance penalty and are sometimes not practical in some landing situation - say sage brush covered country sides.  Still I really appreciate my time using them and it taught me yet another perspective on hang gliding.

Discuss Wheels at the Oz Report forum   link»

1929 hang glider

Gliding for fun in Canada (Montreal, Quebec)

Steven Pearson <Steve> writes:

When I started hang gliding in the early 70s, my great uncle (my grandmother's brother) used to tell me that his brother made foot launch gliders from his mother's bed sheets when he was a child (I think we've all heard that story :).

Ross (Hammond) lives a few miles from me in Orange but his brother Wilson died in an crash of a Mosquito as an RAF instructor in 1939.  A few years ago, he gave me a scrapbook of photos dating from ~ 1929.  I was surprised to see the caption 'hang glider' on the back of a photo that I pried from the album.

http://ozreport.com/pub/images/1stGliderBuild.jpg

http://ozreport.com/pub/images/16bWilson.jpg

http://ozreport.com/pub/images/17c.jpg

http://ozreport.com/pub/images/17cbackHammondFlyingHangGlider.jpg

Discuss 1929 at the Oz Report forum   link»

Oz Report Classifieds

The place is packed with ads (LA, CA, USA)

http://ozreport.com/freeClassifieds.php

104 ads at present.  This is likely the biggest hang gliding/paragliding classified ads bazaar with ads no older than two months.  Check it out.

Speaking of the Classifieds, this is a free service that we provide to our readers that we hope adds value to our web site and to the Oz Report and thereby encourages you to donate/subscribe to the Oz Report.  We originally thought that at some point we would charge for classified ads, but have never gotten around to it.

If you find the Oz Report classified ads to be a valuable service, either buying or selling, please help support that service by donating to the Oz Report.  Unlike the USHPA, we don't have any where near a $1 million/year budget which we can use to support the Classified Ads as an addon service.

Discuss Classifieds at the Oz Report forum   link»

Spot On

Tracking baby white sharks (Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA, USA)

http://sciencemode.com/2008/03/23/freed-baby-shark-heads-for-the-border/ Thanks to Ron Gleason

Shark enthusiasts are invited to keep track of a young white shark returned to the wild by the Monterey Bay Aquarium six weeks ago.  So far, it has traveled past the southern tip of Baja California and is heading toward waters off the Mexican mainland, no passport required.

Discuss SPOT at the Oz Report forum   link»